a. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of clamping devices for securing a hydraulic control hose bundle to a tubular riser system or a wireline.
b. Description of the Prior Art
A hydraulic hose or tube bundle used in oil well drilling and production is typically made of a plurality of individual or single-line hydraulic hoses bundled together in a compact design and having a plastic outer sheath. The diameter of the hydraulic hose bundle varies with respect to the desired number and size of hoses utilized. Typically in an offshore drilling operation such a bundle is used to transmit hydraulic fluid under pressure from control equipment located on an offshore oilwell platform to a control pod for a subsea blowout preventer stack. The hydraulic hose or tube bundle is flexible and generally extends for several hundred feet or more. Because the tube bundle is flexible and must extend several hundred feet or more from a surface platform to a control pod or a blowout preventer stack, it is necessary to attach the tube bundle to some type of support structure, which may be a cable or wireline, choke or kill lines or some supporting member of the riser.
It is known to attach the tube bundle to a series of clamps spaced along the extended cable or wireline. A type of control hose clamp known includes two clamping sections--pivotally connected by an exterior hinge and having an over center or off-center latch securing the control bundle and wireline between the two sections. Such control bundle clamps are manufactured in various sizes to conform to the various sizes of tube bundles utilized.
As offshore platforms and floating drilling rigs have ventured into deeper waters, the environment has become more of a problem to operating sub-surface through control hose bundles. The currents may be worse because of depth or even because of the area and the temperature of the water may even be a negative factor to the life of the control hose bundle. The light polyurethane that is utilized as the outer coating on tube bundles has a tendency to get torn up. The tube bundles are extremely expensive, and since it may be necessary to shut down a drilling rig if a control hose bundle is damaged to the extent that the control pod may not be operable, maintaining the integrity of the bundles is a very important consideration.
In the type of hose bundle clamp known, the metal arms of the clamp often would chafe and degrade the tube hose bundle around the clamped portion as the marine forces caused flexing of the intermediate sections of the control bundles.